On Wednesday, January 24, the Academy of American Poets presented its Leadership Award to Rita Dove, faculty member in the University of Virginia's English department since 1989, at Trinity Wall Street in New York City. It was the Academy's first public in-person event since 2019 and the onset of the Covid pandemic. Together with publishing house W. W. Norton, as well as the philanthropists William I. Campbell and Jonathan Plutzik, Professor Dove was honored for her advocacy of poets and poetry across the nation. 

“As we enter our ninetieth year and look toward the future of our organization, we acknowledge the members of our community who have gone above and beyond for the cause of poetry,” said Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Academy president and executive director. "It is doubly momentous to honor American poet extraordinaire Rita Dove alongside her visionary publisher W.W. Norton & Company for their mutual roles in expanding the realm of contemporary American poetry to be even more imaginative, dazzling, and impactful."